PHILADELPHIA -- Mayor John Street was facing the political equivalent of ''The Perfect Storm.''

Just as three powerful weather systems collided to produce the ferocious storm of the hit movie, converging city crises threatened to toss cold water on the Republican National Convention and Street's political fortunes.

Municipal workers were threatening to walk off their jobs, leaving tons of smelly, uncollected trash to greet the Republican throng.

At the same time, Street was quoted in a national magazine calling thousands of protesters headed to town ''idiots'' angering even the majority of demonstrators who had promised peaceful rallies during the July 31-Aug. 3 convention.

Meanwhile, Street's police department was facing criticism over the videotaped beating of a carjacking suspect an incident that is likely to be a rallying point for convention protesters.

A late settlement this week prevented a garbage strike. But Street, a former community activist who took office in January, still is looking at a major test.

An energetic, trim man of 56, Street says he's ready for the challenge.

''I like dealing with very difficult situations. I would love for every day to be a bike ride with children, to have a whole series of bike rides, but it's not going to be that way,'' he said. ''There's a lot of heavy lifting.''

Street, the city's second black mayor, says he never planned to run for the job. But, in a sense, he has been preparing for it for years.

He made political enemies as a member and then president of the City Council during the 1990s. But with the city facing bankruptcy, he helped then-Mayor Edward G. Rendell slash spending, negotiate tough union contracts and eliminate a $250 million budget deficit.

Those efforts helped free money to promote Philadelphia, the nation's fifth-largest city, as a tourist destination. The city's turnaround also helped Street, a Democrat, eke out a 2-point victory in the mayor's race last November.

He seemed ready to build on the momentum started by Rendell. When a blizzard hit, he sent plows to the tiniest side streets. When a magazine proclaimed Philadelphia the fattest city in the United States, he appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show to talk about fitness. He followed through on a campaign promise by towing 33,000 abandoned cars in 40 days.

But then, in the span of a month, he fired his press aide and a top airport administrator. Later, he met fierce resistance over his plan to build a new stadium for the baseball Phillies in the city's Chinatown section. This month, a flap over a $1.3 million office renovation led to the resignation of his chief of staff.

And he provoked outrage by walking out on 400 community activists who had prodded him to talk about his plans to erase blight.

Street said he ignores the criticism.

''I don't listen to positive press, either. I don't pay any attention to it,'' he said.

His temperamental past almost came back to haunt him in last year's primary, when a Democratic rival focused attention on the Street of old the activist and City Council backbencher prone to outbursts, the guy who once defaulted on his student loans and declared bankruptcy.

One commercial featured television footage of Street shoving a reporter. Another showed Street throwing a cup of water into a police officer's face. Both incidents happened 19 years ago.

Ken Snyder, who was fired as his spokesman, described a ''moody'' Street during the 1999 campaign. Street, he said, used to lock himself in his office and refuse to answer the door.

Others talk about a different Street the one known for an iron will, keen intellect, killer work ethic and an ability to forge coalitions that could block or pass legislation in City Council.

Street has always been big on respect. He got little of it as a high school student, when a teacher told him he wasn't college material.

After receiving his law degree from Temple, he embarked on a brief career in private practice before turning to politics in 1979, when he won a seat on City Council.

By then Street had already built a reputation as a community activist. He had been the legal brains behind brother Milton's fight against city vending regulations. The brothers also railed against the city's use of federal housing dollars and demanded the Philadelphia School Board spend less on administration and more on students.

Street has four children of his own and lives in North Philadelphia with his third wife, Naomi, a lawyer and children's advocate.